Never trust a cat

Chapter 7

Avoiding the cat prince quickly turned out to be impossible. 

The first time Alec saw the demon again was on the next day when he was leaving the Institute early in the morning in order to go for a run. It was a habit he liked to keep up, the exercise outside being much more enjoyable than their usual sparring sessions in the training room, especially now that they were in the middle of spring. Sure, New York wasn't exactly the most quiet and peaceful place, not even in central park at five in the morning, but Alec still enjoyed the atmosphere. The mundanes wouldn't perceive him anyway, thanks to the glamor that was keeping Shadowhunters hidden from their sight, and he always very much liked the feeling of seclusion that came along with that. 

On this particular morning, however, he felt like he was being watched as soon as he had fallen into a rhythm. 

The black cat first appeared on a bench he was running past, following his movements with its yellow eyes. Alec only glanced at it fleetingly from the corner of his eye. It was not unusual that cats could see them after all. Most animals could still at least sense their presence even when humans couldn't. But then, about five minutes later, the cat was there again, as if it was waiting for him. This time it was sitting on the ground, licking its paw. 

Sure it could have been another, very similar looking cat but when it looked up their eyes met directly for the first time and Alec instantly knew that it was the demon he had hoped to never see again. 

He would like to say that he reacted with nonchalance to his realization but in reality Alec tripped over his own feet and could only avoid falling flat onto his face at the last second.

Great. Surely that was exactly the reaction the demon had been hoping for. 

Alec tried his best to not give that cursed creature the satisfaction of showing any further reactions to its presence though. He managed to quickly regain his composure and continued running; his pace only slightly faster than before.

No, he wasn't trying to run away. That would be ridiculous. He also wasn't trying to impress the demon. That would be even more ridiculous. 

He was just concentrating on the act of running, not allowing anything to distract him from that. And if the cat happened to follow him the entire time he totally didn't pay any attention to it. 

It happened again the next day. 

And the day after. 

The cat was always there, watching him. Surely that was supposed to intimidate him, to make him nervous but after a while Alec had almost gotten used to it. 

On the fifth day he even greeted the cat with a short nod of his head and a simple but sassy: “Here again as well, huh?”. 

It was the first time that he was openly acknowledging the demon and Alec found that he rather liked it, somehow. The cat did not answer but that only motivated him to talk more the next time they crossed paths. 

“Do you really have nothing else to do with your time? Is watching me really that fascinating to you?” 

After a while the comments rolled off his tongue completely naturally and Alec decided that he wanted to annoy the cat prince even more so he started wearing different clothes. Normally he wore his Shadowhunter gear, mostly out of habit, but that didn't mean that he didn't own any other clothes apart from that. 

He started off by wearing things that didn't show his body too much like dark sweatpants and casual t-shirts. Then he got more daring with each day. Both, his pants and his t-shirt, slowly grew tighter, until the fabric was downright clinging to his body and highlighting his muscles in a way that couldn't possibly be missed.